tagging

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of tag.

   The staff are tagging every artifact with a unique code.

   Tagging the data correctly took the whole afternoon.

   Note

   Here the -ing form does a verb's work, so it takes a direct object: tagging the data, tagging every artifact. That object is the quickest way to tell it from the noun for the act, which wants of, as in the tagging of specimens. It follows be as a progressive or stands as a gerund subject, and it carries every meaning of tag: tagging a sheep, a runner, a wall. One slang use is vulgar, so context matters.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of attaching a label, marker, or identifier to something.

   The tagging of museum specimens ensures each one can be tracked.

   Manual tagging of thousands of records took the team weeks.

   Similarlabeling, marking

   Note

   The word becomes countable when it names single acts. Roger J. R. Levesque's Encyclopedia of Adolescence (2012) notes that taggings account for the vast majority of graffiti, and each tagging there is one painted signature on a wall, not a label on a record. In the labeling sense the word usually stays uncountable and takes of: the tagging of specimens, the tagging of records.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2